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WMHW-TV
WMHW-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for southeastern Massachusetts. Licensed to the town of Vineyard Haven in Edgartown, Massachusetts, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 41 (or virtual channel 26.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter shared downtown Edgartown The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable Channel 7, and in high definition on on digital channel 756. Owned by NBCUniversal, WMHW and Telemundo-affiliated sister station WVEN have sales and administrative offices in downtown Edgartown. Overview WMHW-TV clears all network, syndicated, and local programming and has separate legal on-air identifications and local commercial inserts from Boston. It does not maintain a separate web address from its parent outlet but does feature a dedicated section with Cape Cod and Islands-specific news headlines and weather forecasts. It was thought that the Vineyard Haven/Cape Cod region could break away from Boston and become its own television market. If this area were to break away from Boston, it would rank in the top 100 of all U.S. television markets. WMHW-TV primarily serves much of the Vineyard Haven/Cape Cod market. In the former southeastern Massachusetts, the station's official coverage area consists of Dukes and Nantucket counties, formerly a part of Massachusetts. Additional viewership comes from surrounding counties in the Southeastern Massachusetts and Providence, RI/New Bedford, MA sub-markets which are actually part of the Greater Boston designated market area. As a result, WMHW is within reach of the home territories of WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and NBC New England flagship WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts (owned by Sunbeam). History Early History The station was founded in the July 1977 and first went on the air around the same month. Some of NBC's programming was available on Providence, RI's WJAR (Channel 10), Boston, MA's WHDH-TV (Channel 7), Springfield, MA's WWLP (Channel 22) and New York City's WNBC (Channel 4), all of which are available on cable in most parts of the region. Acquirement by General Electric In 1980, GE acquired the station's local ownership based in Edgartown, Nantucket and Gosnold (comprising the Elizabeth Islands), making Channel 41 a sister station to KOA-TV (now KCNC-TV) in Denver, Colorado. Ownership by Young Broadcasting Upon GE's acquirement of NBC in May 1986, GE also sold the station to Young Broadcasting of Nashville, Tennessee in July of that year, making it a sister station to WKRN-TV (formerly WNGE-TV, channel 2) for a short time in 1989. Gannett ownership In August of 1989, Gannett Company purchased the station from Young Broadcasting. Prior to that. Gannett helped the staff build facilities for the foundation of their news department in the spring of 1986. During the 1990s, WMHW developed the first automated weather warning system for television use in southeastern New England, and was the first in the Atlantic United States to send storm photographs over cellular telephone and to have a mobile Doppler radar system. Later in the decade, it would become the first station to send video over cellular telephone (earning a Regional Emmy nomination) and the first to distribute full-screen video over cell phones. On July 24, 1995, Gannett Company entered into a merger agreement with Multimedia Inc.; the acquisition was finalized on December 4 of that year. FCC rules at the time prohibited cross-ownership of a television station and a cable provider in the same market, so Gannett was granted a temporary waiver to operate both WUCV-TV and Cape Cod Cable (which served the state of Mayhew and neighouring Barnstable County (Cape Cod) in Massachusetts), that expired in December 1996, the same fate to that of sister stations, WUCV-TV (Channel 53) in Windsor, Vermont KOCO-TV (Channel 5) in Oklahoma City. NBC Ownership Argyle Television Holdings II acquired WUCV, KOCO and Cincinnati, Ohio sister station WLWT in January 1997, through a trade deal that sent fellow ABC affiliate WZZM in Grand Rapids and NBC affiliate WGRZ in Buffalo, New York to Gannett. Argyle merged with Hearst Broadcasting in August of that year to form Hearst-Argyle Television (which was renamed Hearst Television in May 2009). By that time, Argyle sold 45% of WUCV's facilities of the staff of sister station WMUR. Since WMHW wasn't part of the deal, the FCC granted a 3 month deadline whether to sell the station are shut it down for good. On March 29, NBC bought the station from Gannett, making it an NBC O&O station and the first one in New England before Paramount Stations Group sold WVIT to NBC later that year. Newscast Titles *Channel 41 News (1977-1980) *News Watch 41 (1980-1989) *News 41 Cape Cod (1989-1996; 2012-present) *NBC 41 News (1996-2012) 11pm Edition *Nightcast (1986-present) Gallery Alternate logo for wmhw channel 41 2012 present by revinchristianhatol-d9gaf82.png Logo for wmhw channel 41 gannett ownership by revinchristianhatol-d9euz6c.png Logo for wmhw channel 41 1986 96 by revinchristianhatol-d9eux6s.png Logo for wmhw channel 41 1979 86 eoe banner by revinchristianhatol-d9ev1nj.png Logo for wmhw channel 41 1979 86 by revinchristianhatol-d9er60g.png Logo for wmhw channel 41 1977 1979 by revinchristianhatol-d9eds6e.png WMHW Screengrab.png|A screengrab recorded during WMHW's 11pm local news show in 2016. Category:Television channels and stations established in 1977 Category:Channel 41 Category:NBC affiliated stations Category:NBCUniversal Category:Edgartown Category:Nantucket Category:Hyannis Category:Vineyard Haven Category:Massachusetts Category:NBC stations owned by NBCUniversal